The present invention relates to the determination of proteins in materials and particularly the protein content in various food samples.
Proteins are long chain molecules formed from the 20 basic amino acids and are the building blocks of all living systems. Proteins also represent, along with carbohydrates, fats and oils, a required food source for almost all living things.
Because proteins are a required food source, they are widely available in commercially available food products. Human beings tend to take protein in the form of meat, poultry, eggs seafood, dairy products, and nuts. Proteins are also a necessary part of many animal diets, including farm animals raised commercially. Protein sources for such animal feeds can also include meat, poultry, eggs, fish, and grains such as corn and oats.
Because so much human and animal food moves through a fairly sophisticated growing and distribution system, the knowledge of the amount of protein in food products is a valuable or even necessary for quality control, manufacture, storage, distribution, and use. As a result, the need to measure the protein content of various food products for both human and animal consumption has long existed.
One original (although indirect) test for protein content is the Kjeldahl test for nitrogen. In this test a protein sample is mixed with digestion ingredients (e.g., concentrated sulfuric acid, H2SO4) and often in the presence of mercuric oxide catalyst, potassium sulfate, and hydrogen peroxide. The acid converts the nitrogen into ammonium sulfate. The resulting solution is then made alkaline, liberating ammonia. The amount of ammonia can then be determined by titration with standard acid or any other relevant technique. A microwave instrument and technique for Kjeldahl analysis is set forth in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,882,286.
Although the Kjeldahl test offers the advantage of determining protein content, it does so based on total nitrogen rather than protein per se. Thus, any given test results can include nitrogen from sources other than proteins, peptides, or amino acids. The Kjeldahl test also requires heating the sulfuric acid to temperatures that can reach 300° C. and in the presence of a metal catalyst. The Kjeldahl test is relatively complex, can take as long as 4 or 5 hours and can be susceptible to false nitrogen results. In the latter circumstance, confirmation requires at least a second test.
The Dumas technique presents an alternative analysis for total nitrogen and total carbon analysis. This is a combustion technique based upon the generation of gas phase products by extremely rapid combustion of the sample material. In an exemplary technique, a sample is carried in a tin combustion capsule and dropped into a combustion chamber that includes a catalyst and that is maintained at a relatively high temperature (1200° C.). A pulse of pure oxygen is admitted with the sample and the thermal energy from the resulting combustion of oxygen and tin generates an instantaneous temperature of as high as 1700° C. The heat produces total combustion of the relevant materials and the resulting gas phase products are collected in a stream of inert gas such as helium. Alternatively, the sample can be oxidized in the presence of a hot metal oxide. Carbon in the sample is converted to carbon dioxide (CO2). The nitrogen combustion products include diatomic nitrogen (N2) and the various oxides of nitrogen. These are directed through a reduction column, typically using heated metallic copper, to reduce the nitrogen oxides to diatomic nitrogen. The nitrogen can be determined from the volume of N2 produced or by other comparative techniques such as thermal conductivity measurements.
The Dumas technique is limited to relatively small sample sizes (e.g., 0.5 grams or less) and like the Kjeldahl technique it is indirect because it measures total nitrogen rather than protein per se. The small sample size also makes the Dumas test less suitable for more heterogeneous materials.
Indirect techniques such as infrared or near infrared spectroscopy can be used but require relatively extensive calibration. Additionally, the presence of water tends to obscure the infrared absorption across a relatively wide portion of the spectrum. Because plant and animal proteins are so often found in the presence of at least some water, these infrared techniques are often inefficient.
For these and other reasons, proteins are sometimes measured by a dye-binding method, an original version of which was developed by Doyle Udy; e.g., “A Rapid Method for Estimating Total Protein in Milk,” Nature, Vol. 178, pp 314-315, Aug. 11, 1956.
In a simplified description, a protein sample, usually in liquid suspension, is mixed at an appropriate pH with an aqueous solution of a dye molecule that will bind to the proteins. The solution contains an excess of the dye based upon the expected protein content of the sample. Proteins and these specified dyes react to form precipitated solids that remove the dye molecules from the solution. The solution is then filtered from the precipitate. The loss of color in the filtrate as measured in a spectrometer or calorimeter is proportional to the amount of dye (and thus protein) that formed the precipitate. This can also be expressed as the filtrate color being inversely proportional to the protein concentration (i.e., the higher the protein concentration the less color in the filtrate). As a typical example, a solution containing acid orange 12 dye (crocein orange G) has a readily identified broad absorption peak at about 482 nanometers (nm) and its absorbance follows Beer's Law.
As one advantage of this technique, the dye binds strongly with proteins (amino acids) rather than other nitrogen-containing compounds. Thus, it measures protein content more directly than do the nitrogen content techniques.
The technique does, however, require relatively complex measurement and handling techniques, or at least a plurality of manipulative steps each of which must be carried out properly in order to get an accurate result. For example, the user must prepare samples carefully because the small portions tested often represent much larger selections (potentially tons) of non-uniform materials. The test is generally carried out on suspensions which must be handled and stored and prepared appropriately. When solid materials are tested, they must typically be ground or pulverized to obtain an appropriate sample. Semi-solid materials tend to vary in their uniformity with some being almost homogeneous and others being quite non-homogeneous. When samples cannot be used immediately, preserving them for longer periods of time requires significant care.
The reagents present additional challenges and must be carefully handled in preparation, storage, and use. The accuracy requirements of solution preparation are relatively stringent and the preparations must be carried out appropriately.
In conventional practice, mixing an insoluble protein sample directly with a dye binding solution produces a heterogeneous mixture of the original sample, the dye-protein precipitate, and the remaining dye solution. This mixture is typically full of solids both from the dye binding reaction and the original sample and is generally too unwieldy for the necessary filtration and colorimetry steps. As a result, conventional dye-binding techniques tend to avoid directly mixing the dye solution and the protein sample (typically a food product). Instead—and in an additional step—a carefully weighed sample of protein is first diluted in measured fashion to about 10 times its original volume typically with water, or water, methanol and citric acid. This diluted mixture is then blended to form a more homogenous diluted sample. The homogenized diluted sample is then mixed with the dye binding solution to initiate the dye-binding reaction.
As result, the necessary dilution introduces an additional manipulative step, an additional measurement step, and an additional calculation into the overall process.
Protein testing usually involves obtaining and preparing several different sets of the acid orange 12 dye. For example, in the basic Udy technique (Udy Corporation, Principles of Protein Measurement, http://www.udyone.com/udydocs/udysys2.shtml, accessed May 7, 2007) the filtrate color is measured using a digital calorimeter. The calorimeter is set using a reagent dye solution and a working reference dye solution. The standard reference dye solution is used to verify the proper concentration of the reagent dye solution and of the working reference dye solution. The reagent dye solution and the standard reference dye solutions are available in prepared format or as concentrates which can be diluted with distilled water and acetic acid before use. The user prepares a working reference dye solution from the reagent dye solution.
Stated more simply, the amount of protein in a given sample is measured by comparing the “before and after” color of the dye solution. Because the “before” color of any given solution can vary slightly depending upon its preparation, the calorimeter must be calibrated to match the individual dye solution before every test or before a series of tests that use that dye solution.
These relatively strict requirements produce good results, but the many steps involved compound the normally expected experimental uncertainty and each step also introduces the potential for outright error.
For example, typical dye binding protein sampling kits include a blender, a separate container and valves for the dye solution, a separate filter for separating the protein-dye precipitate from the filtrate, and a separate colorimeter. In the same manner, the “basic steps” of protein determination of meat products include the initial dilution step, then homogenizing the diluted sample in the blender, removing the sample from the blender with a syringe, a pipette, or by pouring it into a bottle; adding and measuring the reagent dye solution to the sample; shaking the sample; and filtering the reaction product into the calorimeter to read the absorbance, or in some cases a software-generated protein content based upon the absorbance (Udy Corporation, Udy Protein Systems, www.udyone.com/prosysinfo.htm, accessed Aug. 7, 2007).
These testing steps must be preceded by similarly strict steps for preparing standardized dye solutions for both reference (calibration) and testing purposes.
In the 1970's Foss (a/k/a Foss America, Foss Electric and Foss North America) offered a dye-binding test for milk in the form of the “Pro-Milk II” system. More recently, however, Foss has developed and offered automated devices that use either Kjeldahl techniques or infrared spectroscopy to measure protein content in milk products; e.g., Foss North America, Products direct, (online) http://www.foss.us/solutions/productsdirect.aspx (accessed July 2007).
Accordingly, a need exists for protein measurement techniques that minimize or eliminate these disadvantages.